


Program Failure

by FanDreams01



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders Angst, But It's Not Really His Fault, Creativitwins angst, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Are Twins, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders Angst, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Angst, Deceit Sanders Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, Hurt Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Hurt Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Hurt Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Hurt Deceit Sanders, Hurt Morality | Patton Sanders, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Sorry, M/M, Might remove those if I feel like I can't portray them well, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Protective Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Robot Logic | Logan Sanders, Sympathetic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Unsympathetic Logic | Logan Sanders, basically they're all hurt, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:42:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22633705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanDreams01/pseuds/FanDreams01
Summary: On the edge of town, there’s an abandoned military base, no one has ever dared go near it. Well, that’s not entirely true, it’s just that those who go in, never come out. Except for one: Virgil Dark.For the past three years there’s been a puzzle in town, that no one’s been able to solve. Only Virgil knows the answer, but prefers not to talk about anything to do with it. But then he’s dragged back into it all in a way far too reminiscent to the first time.The Games Have Begun A New.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Sleep | Remy Sanders
Comments: 76
Kudos: 259





	1. Prologue

Run.

Run.

RUN!

Don’t look back, do anything but look back. You can’t help them.  _ They’re my friends. _ YOU CAN’T HELP THEM!

Save yourself, that’s what he told you to do. Get out, get out, GET OUT!

You’re almost there, keep going. The light is right there, you’re almost out!

**_Clank_ **

**_Clank_ **

**_Clank_ **

He’s coming! Run faster idiot! Go! Don’t let it… don’t let it all be for nothing! You have to get out!

Faster.

Faster.

FASTER!

_ Nonononononononono, it’s locked! _ You have the override code, use it. NOW! Before he gets here!

~~~

Virgil stumbles out of the building, breathing heavily and slams the door closed behind him, leaning against it as if that will improve the chances that he won’t be followed. Not that he can be, now that he’s out.

Virgil sinks to his knees, wrapping his arms around himself and shivering. “They’re gone,” he whispers. “They’re… they’re gone. Why did I leave them? I… I shouldn’t have…”

_ You had to, _ the voice in his head responded,  _ he told you to. You did what he wanted, don’t regret it. Never regret it, you did the right thing. _

But how can he be so sure?

“I… I have to move,” Virgil murmured to himself, bracing a hand on the door to help himself stand. He swayed, shakily, realizing he was probably losing a lot of blood from his wounds.

His leg burned as he started to limp away from the building behind him. Away from what had happened. Away from them.

Don’t regret it. Don’t look back. He told me to go. I did the right thing… I think.

Virgil kept repeating that in his head as he stumbled closer to town, hoping he could convince himself it was the truth. It didn’t help.


	2. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's around a three year time skip between the prologue and this chapter.

Roman Prince walked down the halls of the school, a smile on his face. He’d just gotten out of math, which he found dreadfully boring, but now he got to go to his favorite class of the day.

Improvisational acting, without a fail, always brightened his day. Not only because of his love of acting, but also because he shared it with his best friend, Patton, and boyfriend, Remy. It was the one class where the whispers of others, though they’d gotten more sparse as the years passed, faded into a welcoming blackness.

“Ro! Wait up!” A voice shouted from behind him, and Roman turned, seeing Patton racing toward him.

“Padre, what a welcome surprise. Normally you’re already at class before I get there.” Roman greeted his friend when he’d caught up and they’d started walking together.

“Mr. Norberry wanted to talk to me after class.” Patton answered.

Roman raised an eyebrow. “Really? What about? I can’t imagine you’d be in trouble, you are the student council president.” 

Patton waved a dismissive hand and explained, “He wanted to talk to me about a fundraiser for the upcoming play.”

“Right, I’d almost forgotten about that! Thank you again Patton, the drama club could use all the help it can get.” 

Roman felt like maybe he was thanking Patton a bit too much, since finding out about his fundraising plan the week prior. But it also wasn’t a complete lie. Three years ago the drama club had practically been non-existent, before Roman, a freshman at the time, had done his best to revive it. 

It had been a project he’d poured most of his free time into, and helped him ignore the… more troubling things going on in his life. Now, almost three years later, the fruits of his labor were beginning to truly blossom and this year's play was to be written, directed, and produced by students. But only if they could raise enough funds.

“Ro, how many times do I have to tell you that you don’t need to thank me. I know how much this all means to you, and what are friends for if not to help other friends?” Patton laughed.

The two shared a grin and entered the classroom.

“Babes,” Remy drawled as he came over to the two and draped himself over Roman dramatically. “I’m so glad you’re here. Jocky Mc-varsity Captain is being an asshole again, and not even my levels of bitchiness can defeat him.”

Roman chuckled at his boyfriend, and wrapped his arms around him. “Never fear, love. You’re prince is here to rescue you.”

“Not me who needs to be rescued. He’s messing with Doom’n’Gloom.” Remy corrected.

Roman looked over to find that, indeed, Jeremy Soyer, the captain of the varsity football team, was messing with the class's resident emo. Roman, as a whole, usual tried to avoid the boy for reasons Remy had not been made aware of, but he did not take kindly to matters like bullying.

Reluctantly, Roman released his hold on his boyfriend and walked over to the two.

“Soyer,” he started lightly, “haven’t you heard of the phrase, fight someone you’re own size? I think you messed up, because he is  _ quite _ obviously taller than you.” 

Jeremy glared, “Shut it Prince. No one asked you for your opinion, so why don’t you butt out and mind your own business.”

“I just think that you should pick your battles more carefully, before they get you in trouble one day. Now why don’t you sit down, class is about to start and Ms. Crofter will be here any second.” Roman tried to placate Jeremy.

“Tch, like I said Prince,  _ back off _ . Besides, one would think you’d want this punk treated how he deserves, considering --”

“If you finish that sentence, I will kill you,  _ Jeremy _ . Do you understand?” Roman asked through gritted teeth, trying to control the unbridled rage the other boy’s taunt brought him.

“Now, now.” Patton tried to settle the matter, “why don’t we all just calm down and take our seats.”

“No one wants to deal with your niceties right now, Hart. Prince, are you feeling alright? You look a little gre--”

“Jeremy, just shut up. No one here cares what you have to say and your just making a huge scene. Save those for class.” Virgil softly butt in, disrupting the forming argument and gaining everyone’s attention.

Roman tried not to look at him, and instead stared intently at the ground.

Before anyone could say anything, Ms. Crofter walked in, calling class to a start.

They all dispersed to their seats.

“By the way, Roman.” She said before starting class.

“Yes Ms. Crofter?” Roman asked.

“I wanted to congratulate you and your family’s next step from moving on from what happened.” She replied.

Roman furrowed his brows in confusion. “I beg your pardon? I don’t think I understand what you mean.”

“Oh, I thought your mother had said something about cleaning out your brother’s room and giving away things to charity. Nevermind then, now, who would like to start our first scene of the day?”

Roman felt as if the world had just given out from under him.


	3. Chapter Two

As soon as the bell signalling dismissal for the school day rang, Roman was out of his seat and on his way home, completely ignoring Patton and Remy on his way out.

Jumping into the red jeep he’d gotten for his birthday a year ago, Roman drove home, doing his best not to break any speed laws, even in his hurry. Patton and Remy usual got rides home with him but he didn’t want to make any pit stops or force them to be present for the argument that was bound to happen between his parents and him. So after improv he’d told them to find different rides, or wait until Remy’s adoptive father, Dr. Picani the school therapist, could take them home.

When Roman got home he jumped out of the car, slamming the door closed and stormed into the house where he found his parents seated in the living room. 

“Mom, dad, why didn’t you tell me you were cleaning out his room?” Roman demanded to know.

His parents exchanged looks of panic quickly before his mother immediately tried to sooth him. “Roman, honey, calm down. It’s nothing much, we were just planning on going through his things and giving some of them to charity.”

“If that’s true, then why did I have to hear about it from my improv teacher?” Roman challenged.

His father sighed, “Son, it’s been almost three years. Don’t you think it’s about time we admitted the truth to ourselves. Remus is gone.”

Roman’s fists clenched. “How dare you? He is your son, you can’t just give up on him! There has been  _ no _ evidence that he’s dead.”

His father glared at him. “There hasn’t been any that says he’s alive either, which says a hell of a lot more.”

“Why don’t you both calm down,” Roman’s mother tried to placate. “Ro, we haven’t touched his room yet. How about we let you look through and take anything you want in order to remember him. We know these past few years have been hard for you honey, and we just want to do what’s best for this family.”

It was an attempt to sooth him, to make him feel better, Roman knew. But in the moment, while his mind was clouded by anger, he saw it as his mother admitting to having given up on his brother as well. He saw it as her saying that what was best for them - for him - was to give up on his brother, practically forget he’d ever existed in the first place.

“Well you don’t know what’s right for me, and I’m not going to let you forget about Remus!” Roman shouted. “He’s my brother, and as long as there is a chance he is alive, I will never give up on him! He promised he’d be back!”

His mother’s eyes softened. “Roman…”

“I’ll be in my room.” Roman cut her off and stormed out of the room, half out of anger and half out of the fact that he knew he’d regret snapping at his mother later and didn’t want to give himself more to feel guilty about.

~~~

Roman sighed in irritation, thumping his pencil against his head. He’d been trying to do his homework for the past hour and had gotten basically nothing done.

Shoving himself away from his desk, Roman left his room, intending to go downstairs to get a glass of water from the kitchen. Instead, his gaze landed on the door across the hall from his, painted to look like a castle and its surrounding landscape, the name Remus printed in green, jagged writing on it. 

Moving toward it almost reflexively, Roman rapped a knuckle on the door, as if to let an inhabitant know he was there, before he opened the door.

Roman hadn’t been in this room for years, had been avoiding it like the plague. It looked the same as it had the last time he’d been inside.

A bed with a green quilt was pushed into the far left corner, a desk located against the right wall, papers scattered atop, that Roman had no doubt consisted of old homework and half written ideas. Books, art supplies and clothes all littered the floor, and Roman could barely believe his mother had let it stay that much of a mess for three years; she had a reputation as being a neat freak among the Prince family and would yell at Roman and his father if they so much as left dishes out.

Roman looked around the room like a worshipper would at a shrine of their deity. Moving carefully, so as not to step on anything, Roman made his way over to the bed and lay on it, staring at the different designs on the ceiling.

He just laid there, for what felt like forever, taking in the feel of the room and the musty smell making it known it hadn’t been used in a very long time.

Unwanted tears rose to Roman’s eyes. How could his parents want to ruin this? How could they want to take away the only thing that was left of their son, his brother, Remus? He wondered… what would things be like if Remus were still here? 

Taking a deep breath, Roman decided that he needed to get out of there. Now. Rising quickly, Roman hastily made his way toward the door. Perhaps too quickly, as he tripped on a box of random nicknacks on his way out. 

Cursing, Roman rose to his knees and turned to put everything back.

Moving to grab the tubes of paint and canvases that had fallen out of the box, Roman noticed a leather bound book among them. If it were anyone else, he would have thought it was Remus’s sketch book, but Roman had seen his brother’s sketch books many times.

They were always splattered in paint and marked up by pencils, not well worn and clean like this book. So clearly it was something else, but what? And why had it been hidden in a box with some of Remus’s art supplies?

Curiosity getting the better of him, Roman picked the book up. Running his hands over the cover as he hesitated, Roman took a deep breath and opened it.

~~~

Patton groaned as he slowly woke to the sound of upbeat music, momentarily he had to wonder why he had set his ringtone to something that could sound so obnoxious sometimes. True, he loved the song, but not when he was waking up to it at - he checked the time - midnight.

Patton sighed, wondering who could be calling at this time. Reaching out with both hands, Patton fumbled for his phone and his glasses.

Once he’d grabbed both and had his glasses securely on his face, Patton checked who was calling. Whoever it was was very persistent, as the phone had gone to voice mail twice since Patton woke up.

“Roman?” Patton muttered in confusion, upon seeing the caller ID.

_ “Patton? Are you there?”  _ Roman asked when Patton picked up.

“Yeah, what’s up Ro? You left pretty quickly after school, is something wrong?” Patton questioned worriedly.

_ “Everything is… it would be easier to explain in person, could you come over?”  _ Roman replied in lieu of explanation. 

“Yeah sure, I’ll stop by in the morning.” Patton answered, getting ready to hang up.

_ “No, I meant right now. I’m sorry, I know it’s late but… this is important padre.” _

Patton paused, his parents wouldn’t be happy if they found out he’d snuck out of the house in the middle of the night, but Roman didn’t normally call this late or ask him to do things like this. And something in his voice told Patton that something was definitely upsetting his friend.

“Yeah sure. I’ll be over soon.”

_ “Thank you Patton, see you soon.” _ Then Roman hung up.

Patton quickly got out of bed, changing into the first things he could grab, not wanting to turn on a light in case he woke his parents.

Quietly, Patton slipped out of his room, down the hall and out the front door, starting on his way towards Roman’s house.


	4. Chapter Three

Roman was pacing the floor of his brother’s room when he got a text from Patton saying he was outside of his house. Roman debated wether or not to bring the book with him, before deciding that maybe he shouldn’t bring Patton into this room.

Taking the book gingerly in his hands, like it held all the secrets of the world in it, Roman exited his brother’s room and made his way downstairs silently.

He winced slightly when the front door squeaked and both he and Patton froze for a moment, utterly silent to make sure there was no noise coming from the direction of Roman’s parents’ room.

Once they were sure no one had been woken up, Patton glissaded into the house, and Roman led him upstairs.

“So, what’s wrong?” Patton questioned in a whisper once they reached Roman’s room. “You were really vague over the phone and I’m kind of worried.”

“I know what happened to my brother.”

Patton’s eyes widened in shock, “What?” He shrieked, before realizing his mistake and slapping a hand over his mouth, eyes turning to the door of the room.

After a good five minutes of silence, Patton removed his hand and both boys breathed a sigh of relief. Roman had never been so glad that his parents’ room was downstairs.

“What?” Patton repeated, softer this time.

Roman rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and admitted, “Well, I don’t know  _ exactly  _ what happened, but I went into Remus’s room earlier and found his diary.” He motioned to the book he’d placed on the bed when he and Patton had arrived at his room.

Patton picked the book up and opened it to the first page which read:

_ Property of Remus Prince, anyone who reads this will be cursed by the Dragon Witch! (Also I’ll kick you repeatedly in the shins.) This goes to you too Ro! _

Patton couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in amusement and look at Roman who was also sporting a fond smile.

“Alright, so what does this have to do with your brother going missing?” Patton asked.

Roman’s smile immediately dropped and he took the book from Patton, flipping to a page in the middle of the book and handing it back to Patton.

~~~

_ I finally convinced them! Vee and Dee finally agreed to check out the old, abandoned military base at the edge of town with me! ‘Course mom and dad said “Remus, under no circumstances are you to go anywhere near that building. Blah, blah, blah, back when it first shut down the townspeople were given explicit instructions not to go anywhere near it, let alone go inside… blah, blah, blah.”  _

_ But what mom and dad don’t know won’t hurt them. I’d ask Ro to go with us, but he’s been stressed out recently and needs to work on homework (what a drag.) Highschool is not all it’s cracked up to be, the hotness of Troy Bolton lied to me as a child and I will never forgive him. _

_ Anyway, we’re planning on going to explore the base tonight at midnight. Vee’s still worried about what could happen, but I’ve promised him that I won’t let anything happen to him. And i’d never break a promise to him.  _

_ Signing off: Remus _

~~~

Once Patton had finished reading the entry he found himself still confused as to the situation. “Alright, I think I need some more explanation.”

“My brother didn’t write dates at the beginning of any of his entries,” Roman stated, “but he always wrote something everyday, or even just drew something on the page if he didn’t have anything to write, to signify that another day had passed. After that page, everything is blank. That was the last thing my brother wrote before he went missing.”

Patton looked down at the page again. “Alright, so you think something happened while he and his friends were at the base?”

Roman’s eyes were grim. “I know something happened while they were at the base… but I don’t know what.”

“Well… why don’t we ask someone who was there?” Patton suggested hesitantly, well aware that his idea might not go over well with Roman.

Roman tilted his head, obviously confused. “What?”

“Well, Remus was never found, and I’m assuming ‘Dee’ is Damen Lügner and ‘Vee’ refers to… Virgil Dark. Now, Damen’s been missing just as long as Remus, but… Virgil-” Patton was cut off by Roman.

“Absolutely not!” He whisper shouted. “I refuse to go to him for help on this, when he has done nothing to help my brother and Damen over the past three years! He won’t tell the police anything about what happened, Patton! They were supposed to be his friends and he just abandoned them!”

Patton winced, knowing that wasn’t entirely true, though he couldn’t tell Roman that. Technically he shouldn’t know anything about it either, but his father was the chief of police and would talk about work sometimes within the confines of the Hart house where there was an unspoken rule that anything his parents said regarding either of their jobs never left the house.

Patton remembered when this whole mess had started, when Remus, Damen and Virgil first went missing and then Virgil reappeared his father had said,  _ “Poor boy, he’s so traumatized by whatever happened that his mind has fabricated an entirely impossible situation. _ ”

So it wasn’t that Virgil refused to tell the police anything, it was that he wasn’t mentally sound enough to be trusted and believed.

“Well if you refuse to talk to Virgil, what are you planning on doing?” Patton asked. 

“Well,” Roman started hesitantly. “I’m going to go to the base and figure out what happened for myself. I was kind of hoping you would come with me.”

Patton’s eyes widened. “What?” He breathed out. “Are you insane Roman? What if what happens to your brother and his friends happens to you? There are so many things that could go wrong!”

Roman sighed, “look Padre, I’m going to stop you there. You’re not going to convince me to not go. I’ve made up my mind, and either you stay here and cover for me, or come with me. I’m not going to force you to come or anything, it’s up to you.”

Patton bit his lip. He’d already be in so much trouble if his parents found out about this meeting, and they could get arrested for trespassing on the base if they were caught. Not to mention, they still had no idea what happened at the base, which held a danger all it’s own and was possibly the thing Patton was most worried about.

But, Roman had already said that he was going no matter what Patton said… and going with someone else had to be safer than going alone.

Patton sighed, wondering how this night had gotten so out of hand so fast, when not even two hours ago he had been asleep in his bed. 

“Alright,” he finally relented. “I’ll come.”

Roman’s eyes lit up. “Great! Let’s go!” He grabbed Patton’s wrist and started dragging him out of the house.

Patton’s eyes widened. “Wait, right now?!”


	5. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Roman's kind of a jerk this chapter, he really hates Virgil okay?  
> WARNING: The beginnings of a panic attack are described(? I did my best with writing it but as I've never experienced one before I cannot say how accurate it is. Feel free to leave writing advice on this in the comments if you feel comfortable doing so, but please no hate.) If this is potentially triggering to you DO NOT READ please, you're mental health is more important than this story.

The military base was located a little ways away from the main road along a gravel path. It was surrounded by a barbed wire fence that was probably electric when the base was still active. The gates themselves were bolted shut, but there was a hole just big enough for someone to crawl through a yard or two away from the main entrance, so anyone could get in if they really wanted to.

Virgil didn’t knew what drew him here, by all means he should want to be as far away from it as possible. And that had been true for the first year or two, but he must be a masochist or something, because sometimes, when it was a rough night, when the demons crawled out from the back of his mind, or when something reminded him of them, he would come here.

It made no sense, logically, and he was sure Damen would rip him a new one if he were still around. It was just another way for Virgil to torture himself, being there made everything worse and yet better all the same.

The panic would edge closer, the uneasiness and the memories crawling up from the depths of his mind, but his emotions would numb so it was like he couldn’t feel it one way or another. That was bad, he knew, the numbness, but it made things so much easier sometimes. As long as he didn’t get close to that building, as long as he kept his distance it was fine. 

That was were Virgil was, at the very edge of the wire fence in the right corner from the entrance, on the inside of the base. The day had been fine, up until improv. It was one thing for Soyer to “bully” him, and another thing entirely for Roman Prince to show up like the embodiment of his last name. After what happened with… Remus Virgil fully expected Roman to never talk to him, at the very least, hate him at most, which was well deserved.

The entire thing had reminded him far too much of Remus, and by default what happened. Virgil had tried to shake it off by distract himself with blasting music and homework, but when that unsurprisingly failed he found himself down here in the middle of the night.

As Virgil stared at the building he couldn’t help but wonder what had happened in the end. Wondered if somewhere inside of that labyrinth two more bodies had joined the rest or if they were still alive and either suffering or given up.

Virgil shook his head, trying to stop himself because going down that path never ended well, always leading to him going closer and tumbling into that panic barely held at bay by the numbness.

His head fell back against the fence, only his hood offering a slight cushion between the wire digging into his head. His eyes remained glued on the building, however, until he caught a glimpse of movement towards the main gate.

His eyes tracked the movement back to the gate where he could barely make out two figures sneaking in and making there way toward the building.

His stomach sank towards the bottom of his stomach, and Virgil tried to convince himself that whatever they were doing really wasn’t his business, that he should probably get out of here before they noticed him.

But he couldn’t force himself to do anything, not leave and not make his way towards them. He was just frozen, staring at their figures as they made their way closer to a place so similar to Hell, Virgil was pretty sure it was Hell.

Flashes. Remus’s face, Remus’s smile, Damen’s face, Damen’s look of curiosity, the door opening. Remus’s agony, Remus’s words, Damen’s pain, Damen’s  _ face _ .

Virgil found that breathing was getting harder, but he couldn’t just leave these people. He couldn’t let what happened to them happen to whoever these people were. He couldn’t… He couldn’t be responsible for two more people hurting.

Virgil forced himself away from the safety of the outside, the safety of the fence, and started running after the two figures who’d almost made it to the building’s entrance.

By the time he’d reached them they were at the door, and he was close enough to recognise them. His stomach turned over.

“Roman! Patton! STOP!” Virgil shrieked as he sprinted the last of the space between them. His two classmates turned around in shock.

They stared at each other for a minute, none knowing what to do. Virgil’s breathing was heavy, and he couldn’t tell if it was from the running or from the proximity to this place.

Eventually, Roman’s face twisted into a scowl, “What do you want, Doom’n’Gloom?”

Virgil didn’t say anything about the nickname coined by his cousin - did Roman know he was dating Virgil’s cousin? Probably not, but that didn’t really matter. Virgil scrambled to recollect his thoughts which had gone rogue, trying to think of anything but the current situation. “You-you guys need to leave.  _ Right now _ . We all need to get out of here,” He stammered out.

“No, whatever happened here, whatever dirty little secret  _ you’ve _ been hiding about what happened to my brother, I’m going to find out.” Roman declared.

“That’s-that’s not a good i-idea. R-Roman  _ please _ , I’ll-I’ll tell you anything you want to know, just don’t go in there!” Virgil pleaded. God, he never thought there would be a day where he would bring himself to plead with someone.

Roman stared at him for a moment longer, determining the challenge just placed before him and whether it was worth it. Then he turned around and yanked open the door. Virgil’s breath caught in his throat.

Patton look hesitant, glancing between the two boys before he reluctantly entered the building. Roman went to follow him, but at the last moment Virgil jolted forward, grabbing a hold of his arm.

Roman looked down, and he must of seen the panic in Virgil’s gaze, the absolute terror in his eyes, because his gaze softened a bit, before he tried to pull his arm out of Virgil’s grasp. Virgil, who was already standing on shaky legs and was holding Roman in a death grip, lost his balance, and fell forward, entering the building with Roman. The door closed behind them.

The panic clenched Virgil’s chest and he stopped breathing for all of two seconds as he stared down the dark, forboding corridor that stood in front of the three teens.

_ We need to get out, _ a voice he hadn’t heard since escaping whispered in his mind.  _ The override code, you still remember it. _

Virgil whirled around, fingers flying over the keypad as fast as possible. He couldn’t hear the clanking, a good sign, but he still had to be  _ fast _ or else they were doomed.

_ Access Denied: Incorrect Password _

The red words stared up at Virgil hauntingly. The code had been changed.

Virgil couldn’t breath.

Virgil couldn’t see.

Virgil couldn’t  _ do anything. _

He was back in Hell.


	6. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: blood and dead bodies, but their is only minor description involved. still, if this is possibly triggering for you do not read that part, for reference it is when Virgil goes into the office and ends at the next time skip.

Roman watched as Virgil frantically tried to punch something into the keypad, before falling to the ground, shaking. He couldn’t help but feel slightly bad, sure he didn’t like the guy, but it hadn’t been his intention to drag him into a place he was so clearly petrified of.

“Hey,” he started hesitantly. “Are you alright?” Virgil’s eyes snapped towards him and Roman flinched at the panicked look in his eyes.

Patton, who’d been looking down the dark hall warily, turned to the two and upon noticing Virgil’s panic took action. Moving to the shaking boy’s side, Patton reached out a hand before deciding that it would be best not to touch Virgil at the moment.

“Virgil,” Patton spoke softly, trying not to startle him. “Hey, can you look at me?” Virgil’s eyes darted towards Patton. “Good, you’re doing good kiddo. Now, we need to calm your breathing. Do you think you can try and match mine?”

Roman hadn’t even noticed that rapid rising and falling of Virgil’s chest as he struggled to breath past whatever was running through his mind. Guilt clawed at Roman’s own chest.

Virgil gave jerky nod of confirmation to Patton’s question, attempting to calm his breath, but even the slightest noise caused him to lose what little control he could manage.

Roman shifted slightly on his feet, trying not to make much noise so as to prevent more panic in Virgil. “Patton,” he spoke in the same soft tones as his friend. “I’m going to go see whats in this place, I won’t go far.”

Patton looked between him and Virgil, hesitance obvious. Clearly, he was torn between helping Virgil calm down and going with Roman. Normally, Roman would stay so as to prevent Patton from unnecessary stress, but he felt his presence was more hindrance than help at the moment.

Without waiting for Patton to respond, Roman turned to face the hall and began walking, still trying to make as little noise as possible. It wasn’t long before Roman found himself at a split in the hall, and he debated wether or not he should just stay there and wait for Patton and Virgil to catch up, or continue on and hope that they turned the same way he did when attempting to find him.

A noise to the right of him caused Roman to look down one of the new halls, which was slightly brighter than the one they’d been presented with at the entrance of the building. Roman questioned if he should go down there, obviously something had to have made that sound and he had no idea what. It didn’t help that two people had entered this building and never come out for reasons unknown.

Just as curiosity almost got the better of him, a hand clasped down on Roman’s shoulder and he jumped with a startled yelp. Whirling around he saw that Patton had managed to calm Virgil and the two had caught up, even if Virgil still appeared nervous and kept tugging at the sleeve of dark hoodie.

“Everything alright now?” Roman asked the two, before realizing how stupid of a question that was.

Virgil clearly agreed, as his face twisted into a weak scowl. “Just peachy,” he murmured sarcastically. Roman found it somewhat reassuring to know the boy was slightly more like the person Roman caught glimpses of in class even if he didn’t like or know Virgil well it was unnerving to see him so anxious.

Patton looked between the two before brightly questioning, “So, what now?”

Roman paused, he hadn’t really thought past getting into the building. Sure he knew what his goal was - to figure out what happened to Remus - but he had no idea how to go about getting to it.

“We get out.” Virgil stated sternly. Clearly expecting an argument he continued quickly, “Look, I know you wanna know what happened and… well, my statement still stands. I’ll tell you, but first we have to  _ get out _ . If we’re lucky, the new code will be in the Director’s office. I’m pretty sure I can get us there.”

Roman crossed his arms defiantly, suddenly remembering  _ why  _ he didn’t like Virgil. “And how do we know you’ll tell us the truth? And what do you mean, ‘new code’? This place has been abandoned for years, no one has been here to  _ change _ the code.”

Virgil sighed, “Like I said, I’ll explain once we’re out of here, wether you believe me or not is up to you. Everything is a  _ lot _ more complicated than you think and once I explain you’ll be glad I got you two out of here, if you believe me.”

Patton stepped between the two, trying to defuse the situation. “Alright you two, lets not fight when we’re trapped in an abandoned military base that feels like it came straight out of a horror movie.” 

Patton laughed awkwardly, not reassured when he heard Virgil whisper, “You have no idea.”

“Fine,” Roman conceded to Patton. “And, pray tell Hot Topic, what do we do if this ‘new code’  _ isn’t  _ in the Director’s office?”

Virgil’s eyes began lighting up with panic again, before he closed his eyes and took a steadying breath. “For our sakes, let’s hope it is.”

~~~

Patton trailed behind Roman and Virgil quietly as Virgil lead them through the twisting halls, though Roman appeared to be trying to make it look like he was the one leading. The air was thick with tension between the two and he was sure a fight would have broken out if not for Virgil’s warning of “Stay _ quiet _ ,” which had been spoken so seriously neither could bring themselves to argue.

Patton glanced around the hall nervously. He’d always been one to trust his instincts, and his gut was screaming at him that this place bad news. He wanted to get out as soon as possible.

“We’re here,” Virgil broke the silence, and Patton returned his attention to the two teens in front of him. 

Virgil and Roman had come to a stop at a door containing a name plate. Though, as Patton squinted to see it better in the dark, he realized that it wasn’t an official plate and was instead a slip of paper slipped neatly in the place a plate would actually go. Written in neat, blocky letters was the name:  **Director Berry** .

Roman reached for the door knob, before Virgil’s hand suddenly snapped out and grabbed his wrist.

Patton watched in apprehension as the two had a silent stand off with their eyes.

“What now?” Roman questioned in exasperation.

Virgil hesitated before speaking, “We, um… need people to stand guard. It’s better if we have two. I’ll… I’ll go in, I know where to look for the code.”

Roman narrowed his eyes in suspicion, and Patton couldn’t blame him. After all, Virgil sounded awfully nervous at the moment, voice edging on a panic close to that of when he’d tried to stop them from entering the building. And why would they need two people to guard the door?

Patton expected Roman to protest, but he only sighed and stepped out of Virgil’s way. “Fine.”

Virgil looked shocked, but didn’t comment on Roman’s easy surrender. Instead he reached out for the handle, pausing for a moment before gripping it and opening the door barely wide enough so that he could slip through, closing the door before either Patton or Roman could get a look inside.

~~~

Virgil’s eyes were squeezed tightly shut as he entered the room, hearing the door click shut. Immediately, the smell of iron and rot hit his nose and Virgil almost gagged on instinct, knowing the sight he would see when he opened his eyes.

Anxiety edged at the corners of his minds, but Virgil tried to push it back. He had a job to do. Virgil opened his eyes quickly, trying to hone his gaze onto the desk and not what surrounded it. It didn’t work.

Instantly Virgil’s gaze began to frantically dart between the blood staining the walls and the bodies on the floor, the scent seemed to become overbearing now that Virgil could see what caused it. Virgil’s body shook, but he tried to push through the rising emotions and make his way behind the desk.

The desks contents were probably the most tame thing in the room. Multiple files were placed neatly on the desk, if not for the dried blood droplets and layer of dust covering them Virgil would have thought the desk was still in use. There was also a computer located directly in front of where the former director’s head lay, the man having been killed while sitting at his desk and never moved.

Virgil tried not to touch the rotting body and opened the top left drawer, lifting out the pile of papers in it. Virgil quickly leafed through it, finding the codes for different military projects - not the one that was the problem though, no the scientists had gotten to cocky with that one, not planting a fail safe (An idiotic, stupid, horrible on their part) - but the new code to exit the building was not one of them.

Virgil felt the anxiety and panic edge closer, breathing becoming difficult again.

He tried to calm down, to find a spot in the room  _ not  _ covered in blood or holding a body. Instead, his gaze landed on a body slumped against the wall, skin beginning to fall off and hanging from the man’s face, revealing the muscle that lay underneath.

_ Were Remus and Damen like that? Are they somewhere in this building, rotting away like these people? Is this the result of Virgil leaving them? Was this their fate too? _

Virgil tried not to think about it, tears falling from his face as panic and anxiety and guilt welled up in his chest causing him to break, if only for a while.

~~~

Roman watched Patton pace the hallway worriedly.

“He’s been in there for over twenty minutes Ro. Do you think he’s okay?” Patton continued the rant he’d been on for at least half the time Virgil’d been gone.

“I can always check if you’re that worried,” Roman offered not for the first time.

“No, no.” Patton quickly denied, “he told us not to go in.”

Roman sighed, turning his head to peer down one of the halls near them, trying not to will the door to the director’s office to open. Alright, so maybe he was starting to worry too, but he knew he shouldn’t be. Nothing had entered since Virgil had, and they definitely would have heard if something had happened in the room.

Finally, the door opened, and Virgil slipped out, eyes bloodshot and tear tracks on his face, eyeshadow running. It was obvious he’d been crying.

Roman pushed himself off the wall. “What happened?”

Patton rushed over, worry evident on his face.

Virgil rubbed a hand across his eyes. “Sorry I took so long. Just… I had another panic attack.”

Patton whimpered. “You should have gotten me kiddo, I would have helped you through it!”

Virgil stared at him like he’d grown a second head. “Um, s-sorry. I’ll… remember that next time? I’m just… used to dealing them on my own I guess.”

“What caused it?” Roman hesitantly asked, wondering if it was too soon or if the question would trigger another panic attack.

Virgil tensed, “Um, the… the code isn’t there.” Roman tilted his head, analyzing Virgil, before he glanced at Patton who looked even more worried now. Virgil… was definitely telling the truth, just not all of it.

He was doing one of his acting ticks, not looking anyone in the eye. Roman had picked up on all of the acting ticks of his classmates after watching them act in class. And acting was just another form of lying, as some say.

Virgil had a tendency to avoid eye contact when making something up entirely, but his eyes would always be focused on a face at least if what he was saying wasn’t a complete lie, like how Patton had a tendency to act nervously when he forgot a line or didn’t know how to proceed with a situation, it made him a horrible secret keeper.

Either way, Virgil wasn’t looking either Roman or Patton in the eye, but he was focusing intently on Patton’s nose, so he was comfortable enough to look at them, just not their eyes. He definitely wasn’t telling them everything.

Still, Roman decided to let it drop, not wanting to trigger another panic attack when Virgil had to be emotionally exhausted form the two he’d already had.

“Alright, so I guess the only option is to investigate the building like I’d planned and hope we find a way to get out while we’re looking.” Roman broke the uneasy silence that had enveloped the three.

Virgil opened his mouth, clearly showing on his face that he thought that was a bad idea, but not having a way to convince Roman not to as he had no better ideas.

Suddenly, Roman heard a clanking sound from down the hall. Turning towards it slightly, Roman peered into the darkness. Patton did the same, neither noticing how Virgil tensed, eyes widening.

“Guys,” He hissed, voice urgent. “guys, we need to move. Let’s...let’s investigate, see if we can get out. Come  _ on _ , just not that way.”

Patton looked at him, quickly moving away from the direction the sound had come from and toward Virgil when he say the panic rising in the boy once again.

“Roman,” Patton muttered, “Roman come on.”

Roman turned to follow the two away from the noise, when another sound came from the darkness.

_ “Unknown presence detected, scanning.” _

The three turned around, seeing two glowing, dark blue lights almost resembling eyes, facing them in the darkness of the hall.

_ “Scanning… Scan Complete... Hello Virgil, you brought new friends.” _


	7. Chapter Six

Roman stared at the glowing light as it crept closer towards him, Patton and Virgil, feeling dread pool in his stomach. He glanced at Virgil, noting how the other seemed to be on the edge of having another panic attack, gripping Patton’s hand in a death grip.

Clearly he wasn’t a big fan of whatever was approach them, no matter what it called Virgil.

The clanking came to a stop and Roman took a deep breath, turning his face back to look at it. It looked mostly like a human, a dark collared shirt and jeans framed its body, the only thing identifying it as not human were the glowing eyes which, when one looked close enough, looked like cameras and the grey slate of its skin.

“Virgil,” Patton whispered, “What is that?”

Virgil gulped, eyes still unfocused. He probably wasn’t even entirely aware that the single word he spoke slipped from his lips. “Hell,”

_ “Virgil, according to my data friends do not say such things about other friends. My name is L0G4N, though my creators referred to me as Logan. I am a Robotic Artificial Intelligence, or an R.A.I.”  _ The being who’d emerged from the shadows contradicted.

“Uhuh,” Roman replied, eyeing Logan warily. “And how do you know Storm Cloud here?”

Logan tilted its - his? - head.  _ “Who is ‘Storm Cloud’?... Scanning database… My data indicates that you have used a ‘nickname’, something given to close friends. If this nickname refers to Virgil, he is my friend though I have not seen him in… 27,443 hours. In standard human time: 3 years, 48 days and 11 hours.” _

Roman felt rather indignant about being called friends with Virgil, but kept quiet and glanced at Virgil again. He was shaking visibly, the only thing keeping him standing was the fact that Patton had switched from holding his hand to wrapping an arm around his waist.

_ “We were beginning to think Virgil would not come back. But he brought more friends instead. How splendid. Shall we play games?” _

“No!” Virgil shouted, “No games!”

At the same time Roman questioned, “We?”

Logan ignored Virgil, turning his glowing gaze directly to Roman, who shrank back slightly. 

_ “Yes, me and my other friends, Remus and Damen.” _

Roman felt his breath catch in his throat, and heard a sharp inhale behind him.

“They’re alive?” Virgil murmured softly.

_ “I do not kill my friends. They have missed you Virgil. Now, will you enlighten me to the names of my new friends?” _ Logan asked.

“I-” Virgil cut himself off and Roman looked back at him. Virgil looked like he was about to suffocate, eyes darting around nervously.

“I’m Patton,” Patton responded quietly instead, not noticing the wide eyes stare Virgil gave him. “And that’s Roman.”

__ Logan tilted his head.  _ “Roman, this name sounds familiar. Scanning database… Subject:Roman… A boy mentioned by Remus multiple times upon first becoming my friends; twin brother. Remus will be delighted to see you as well Roman.” _

Roman didn’t know how to feel at this moment, on one hand, he was told that his brother was alive and that he’d be able to see him but on the other this robot gave him bad vibes and clearly had to do with what had happened to his brother, Damen and Virgil in the first place. And what were these ‘games’ he had mentioned earlier? Virgil had seemed quite adamant about them not happening.

_ “In fact, before the games, I will take you to Remus and Damen. Perhaps then they will play as well, they have been so unenergetic as of late.” _ Logan stated. He turned on his heel and began clanking back down the hall he’d come from.  _ “Follow me.” _

Roman hesitated, looking to Virgil for guidance. He still didn’t particularly like him, but he was the only one of the three who had experience with Logan and this place.

Virgil, feeling both Patton and Roman watching him, took a shaky breath. “Come on,” He muttered breathily. “We need to move, he doesn’t like it when people don’t listen to him.”

~~~

Patton nervously glanced at Logan from the corner of his eye. He had a bad feeling about all of this, and was seriously regretting telling the robot his and Roman’s names. 

Logan had led them back through the twisting halls of the government building, all the back to near the entrance, down the hall they hadn’t taken and to a door near the end of it before stopping outside.

_ "Remus and Damen are inside resting. You may enter and see them. I will give you five two hours to interact before we play a game.” _ Logan informed them and all three nodded to show they understood. The robot then left, moving further into the building.

“Let’s get Remus and Damen and make a run for the exit, it’s not that far.” Roman whispered.

“We can’t,” Virgil hissed just as quietly. “Believe me, Princey, I want to get out of here just as bad, if not more, but we don’t have the code and Logan will be on our tails in no time flat. You  _ don’t _ want that to happen.”

Patton glanced between the two, not wanting them to start fighting when this situation was clearly extremely bad. And while he too wanted to escape, he knew Virgil had a point. Patton did not want to see what Logan would do if they crossed him.

“Let’s just see Remus and Damen, alright?” Patton asked and reached for the door knob. Virgil’s tight grip latching onto his wrist stopped him, though, and Patton looked at him.

“I… I don’t think I’m ready to see them.” Virgil explained.

“What? Afraid they’ll be mad because you abandoned them?” Roman huffed and Patton sent him a warning look.

“Don’t worry Kiddo, I’m sure it won’t be as bad as you think. Come on, I’ll be right there with you.” Patotn encouraged and slowly Virgil released his hold allowing Patton to open the door.

The room was dark and none of them could see anything. Roman felt along the side of the walls at the entrance and, finding the light switched, turned on the lights. He was met with two pained hisses from inside the room.

Patton looked around the room, taking everything in. A few beds lined the walls, a table was flipped over and the floor was a mess. There was also a reddish-brown substance on the walls that Patton didn’t think was dried paint if the smell was anything to go by.

“V-V-Virge?” A small, hesitant voice asked, and Patton turned towards one of the beds in the far corner of the room.

He screamed.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day Woohoo. I feel accomplished.  
> WARNING: Fire and description of a burn though it isn't very graphic.

Virgil stared with wide eyes at the face in front of him. It was so familiar, but also not at the same time. He remembered how it happened, had been there, but he’d never seen the final product of what he’d caused.

~~~

_ Virgil huffed a tired breath, sweat dripping down his face. The room was already so hot and only kept heating up as the minutes passed. Remus had already passed out from exhaustion. _

_ Virgil didn’t know how long they’d been stuck in this building, how long they’d been stuck playing Logan’s twisted games, but knew none of them had been given a chance to hydrate since getting here, only making this situation so much harder to handle. _

_ “L-Logan, we… we don’t want to play this game anymore!” Virgil shouted, trying to alert the robot that this game was not appreciated, not mentioning the fact that it hadn’t been before as none of his games had been. “We’ve had enough!” _

“But Virgil, this is a game. Is this not what friends do?” _ Logan’s voice came through an intercom. _

_ Virgil opened his mouth to reply. _

_ “Virge!” Damen suddenly shouted and Virgil whirled around in time to see that one of the many flame throwers had moved directly in front of him. _

_ Virgil froze, wide eyes, not able to bring himself to move an inch until Damen tackled him out of the way just as the flames were released. _

_ Virgil landed on the ground heavily. “Th-thanks Da-” _

_ Damen’s screams stopped Virgil and he quickly turned his gaze to find Damen curled up on the floor, hands clutching at the left side of his face. Dread and guilt pooled in Virgil’s stomach. _

_ Damen had gotten burned. _

~~~

Patton screaming snapped Virgil out of his memories, and Virgil couldn’t blame Patton for his reaction. If Virgil hadn’t already known to prepare himself for… some kind of damage to Damen’s face he would have been freaked out too.

It wasn’t as bad as when the burn had been fresh, still blistering and red, dripping puss, but the scar it had left was still unnerving to most.

“H-hey Damen,” Virgil stuttered out.

Damen’s eyes widened, brown and gold both. Virgil was glad that no lasting damage had been done to his eye at least. “W-what are you doing here?” he demanded to know.

“I… It’s a long story.” Virgil muttered, feeling ashamed all of a sudden. What could he say? He wanted to be able to say that he’d come back to rescue Damen and Remus, but Damen had always been good at seeing through people and with Roman here to contradict that, it made things all the worse.

“Where’s my brother?” Roman asked.

Damen flicked his attention towards Roman, eyebrows furrowing in confusion before he seemed to realize who Roman was. Moving quickly, he went to the other side of the room and shook a bundle of blankets.

“Remus, Remus you need to get up. This is important?” Damen commanded and the bundle of blankets groaned, a hand reaching out from underneath to reveal a head of dark hair.

“What Double Dee?” Remus groaned and Virgil couldn’t help but stare. Remus’s dark hair had grown over the past three years, fanning unkempt around his head. His acid green eyes were sharp and alert but at the same time gave the idea that Remus’s thoughts weren’t entirely there.

“We have visitors.” Damen answered and Remus quirked an eyebrow.

There was only one other person here, or at least there was supposed to be only one other person here. Remus moved his eyes towards the door and froze.

“What are they doing here?” Remus questioned sharply, sitting up ramrod straight.

“I don’t know,” Damen admitted. 

Remus scowled, untangling himself from the blankets and stormed over to Virgil, who flinched back, wondering if Remus was going to hit him.

“Virgil, what. Are. You. Doing. Here? And why on earth did you bring those two? Who even are they?” Remus began demanding answers.

“I-I - uh - they - Re,” Virgil struggled to get out. He could feel tears gathering in his eyes and breathing was getting harder, like it had so many times already that night.

“It’s not Virgil’s fault,” Patton jumped to Virgil’s defense upon seeing how much he was struggling to reply to Remus. “We’re the ones that dragged him here.”

Damen placed a placating hand on Remus’s shoulder. Remus turned to snarl at his friend.

“Remus,” Damen started calmly. “Roman is with Virgil.”

“What?!” Remus howled, turning back around, zeroing in on the final person in the room.

Roman shifted nervously, not knowing what to expect. The way his brother had launched himself at Virgil moments ago seemed so unlike Remus, even when he was angry. A lot had changed, Roman admitted to himself, over the course of three years. And he didn’t know who his brother was at the moment.

The room was silent, Remus just staring at his brother, eyes dark and unreadable. “Does he know you three are here?” Remus finally asked, sounding hollow.

“Yeah,” Virgil muttered.

Damen sighed, “Then there’s nothing we can do.”

“Our fates are sealed,” Remus finished. He moved back to the bed he’d been laying on before. Burying himself in the blankets.

Damen hesitated, staring at Patton, Roman and Virgil for a moment longer before moving back to his bed.

Virgil sucked in a shaky breath, trying to calm himself and batted away Patton’s hand when he tried to offer assistance. 

Virgil’s mind felt cloudy, but not the point where he felt he was going to sink and wasn’t able to breath. He guided himself to one of the remaining beds in the room, closest to Damen’s, because even though he felt like the other was mad at him, and they hadn’t seen each other in years, once upon a time Damen had been the one Virgil ran to when he needed to block out the world.

Roman and Patton were left standing there, not sure of what to do when they looked at these three teens. Two so obviously broken in some way and the other on the verge of doing so.


	9. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Remus typical thoughts.

Remus peered out from under his blankets, staring at Virgil. He had his hood drawn up tightly over his head and kept biting at his nails. Remus found it rather comforting that Virgil still had some of his nervous habits from before, but couldn’t help but feel guilty knowing that he was part of why Virgil was so nervous it looked like he was about to rip is entire nail off.

Remus wondered how much blood there would be if Virgil did that.

The bed dipped and Remus moved his gaze down its length, finding that Roman had taken a seat there. His brother had aged well, over the past few years it seemed.

His red-brown eyes stared at Remus past red hair.

“You dyed your hair,” Remus blurted.

Roman blinked, moving a hand up to play with some of the mentioned hair. “Um, yeah. I like to experiment with it. It was purple a few months ago.”

Remus tried to smile at the thought of brother with a fluff of purple hair, but found himself fixating on the current color. It was almost like the color of dry blood, perhaps a bit more copper. His mind flashed to images of Roman covered in actual blood. Remus looked away from his brother, swallowing the bile that that image brought. He didn’t want to see that. 

“I can’t believe Virgil brought you here.” Remus muttered, casting another look at Virgil, though this one was darker.

“To be fair, he actually didn’t bring me.” Roman replied.

Remus glanced back over at him, shock overtaking any possibility of more stray thoughts popping up. “What? Why else would you be here?” He demanded.

Roman hesitated, unnerved by the intensity of his brother’s eyes. “Well… I found your diary. It said that you were going here the night you disappeared.”

“So you decided to come investigate?” Remus questioned, wondering how Roman could have been that idiotic.

“Well,” Roman said sheepishly, clearly deciding that he’d been rather stupid in the face of his brother and current situation. “Yes, but you would have done the same!”

Remus scoffed, but remained silent knowing his brother was right, or used to be right. Remus didn’t know. Things were different now, he was lucky to be able to complete thoughts that made any logical sense now a days. Who was he to say whether he would or would come after his brother if he went missing?

“That doesn’t explain why Virgil is here.” Remus mentioned.

“Well, I roped Patton into this, and Virgil kind of just showed up, trying to stop us before we entered the building. I don’t know why he was here in the first place.” Roman answered.

Remus looked at Virgil. He was still chewing on his nails, eyes closed and taking deep breaths through his nose. From the corner of his eye, Remus noticed Damen staring at Virgil in concern, hand twitching momentarily like he wanted to reach out to their old friend.

“I have a few guesses,” Remus muttered, more to himself than Roman.

Roman looked at his brother curiously, wondering if Remus was going to enlighten him on these guesses or not. When he didn’t comment any further Roman decided that it was the latter. 

“So,” Remus turned his attention to the voice of the final occupant of the room. Patton shifted slightly from where he stood awkwardly in one of the corners of the room. He felt as if he was intruding here, Roman was with Remus, Virgil had denied his help and Patton didn’t even know Damen.

“What exactly should Roman and I be expecting in an hour?” Patton finished asking.

Virgil’s eyes began to dim. “Nothing good. I don’t know all of Logan’s games but…”

“None are particularly fun,” Damen finished. “It’s more like torture.”

“What’s his deal anyway?” Roman asked, “What is he and why is he all… pyschobot?”

Remus shrugged, “I mean, we don’t know everything, just what we were able to pick up before he caught us in the first place. He isn’t exactly a huge talker.”

“Well, what do you know?” Patton picked up the interrogation, figuring it would be best to know as much as possible going in.

Virgil glanced at Remus and Damen, neither looked like they were going to give up any information. “I’ll tell them,” Virgil volunteered.

~~~

Everyone’s gaze snapped towards him and Virgil shrunk deeper into his hoodie. “I-I mean… i-it’s the least I can do considering…” I got you into this mess. “I just think I’m the most… s-stable? To talk about L-logan right now?” Virgil cringed at his own wording.

“Oh so you think me and DeeDee are insane now, do you?” Remus questioned, though subconsciously he knew Virgil had a point at least in his case. But he’d like to see Virgil go through three years of Logan’s games and come out entirely sane!

“Remus,” Damen placated, “Virgil is right. Virge, go ahead.”

Virgil smiled gratefully. “Alright. So, um, There are files in some of the rooms that give hints about what happened, and the rest is… kind of just filling in the blanks… so it might not be entirely right.”

“That’s okay, just tell us what you know kiddo,” Patton assured Virgil.

Virgil wrinkled his nose, unsure if Patton was patronizing him or not. “Um… well as far as we could tell this base was for military testing, more specifically they were trying to create an artificial intelligence they could use during war. From the program, we got L0G4N. I… we think that maybe in order to get Logan to go along with their plans and testing they told him that they were his friends and that the tests they were doing were games.”

“Alright, so why did they abandon the base and their supposed weapon?” Roman asked.

“Well… from the files we saw, Logan… malfunctioned or something. They deemed him unfix-able and the project a lost cause. O-originally they were just going to shut him down and try again but… whatever happened to him made him… more independent? I don’t… it’s hard to explain, especially when I don’t know everything.”

“Just try your best,” Patton offered.

“Okay… well… from our understanding, they tried to shut Logan down and… he didn’t like that. He ended up killing everyone in the base. The military found out and decided to cover up and just close the military base. Logan can’t leave, Like, he physically can’t leave, dunno why though.”

“Alright, well what’s his fixation with friends?” Patton asked.

“This is the point where we get to all assumptions,” Damen said before Virgil could speak. “If we’re saying that Logan’s creators called themselves Logan’s friends in order to get him to partake in tests - which they called games - then Logan is probably looking for friends that won’t betray him and will play games with him. It would have been fine if everyone had listened to the governments rule about the base, but no. Teenagers just have to be rebellious.”

Virgil snorted softly. A small weight in his chest seemed to be lifted knowing that Damen wasn’t entirely different as Virgil had feared if he was still able to make jokes like that, or at all.

“I see,” Patton hummed thoughtfully.

“What are you thinking Padre?” Roman asked.

Patton opened his mouth to answer before being cut off by Remus, “Maybe we should dissect his brain to find out.”

The room froze, Damen sighed. “Remus…”

“I know, I know. Brain to mouth filter needs working on. I can’t help it Double Dee, you know that.” Remus whined.

Virgil stared down at his hands, feeling the urge to pick at the already ripped edges of his nails. Was that… his fault? His fault for leaving them here for so long? Was Remus’s mental health only so bad off that these kinds of thoughts were normal because Virgil didn't come back?

God, if it was, Virgil would never forgive himself. 

Before anyone could say anything the telltale clanking came from outside of the hall.

Logan was back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Virgil's train of thought towards the end is a mix of me kind of wanting him to have survivors guilt (but it's not really survivors guilt cause Damen and Remus are alive, but you know what I mean) and the fact that he canonically is unnerved by Remus's thoughts.   
> Idk, I felt like this wasn't my best chapter in general and am open to feedback.


	10. Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Important: After the newest Sanders Sides video revealed Deceit's name I had to do some thinking as to what I wanted to do about it in this AU. I decided that since I've already published quite a few chapters using the name Damen I would keep Deceit's first name as that for this AU and this AU only. However I do want to acknowledge his real name so his middle name will be Janus. This might be confusing so if you have a question about it feel free to ask in the comments.

Remy sighed, his head resting on his hands as he sat on the sidewalk outside of his boyfriend’s house. He didn’t know exactly how long he’d been waiting, but he knew that they were definitely late to school by now.

Remy checked his phone again, double checking that Roman hadn’t messaged him saying that he wouldn’t be going to school today or that Patton wasn’t asking where the two of them were. It was odd that he hadn’t received a text from either of them yet, even just something telling Remy and Roman that he’d gotten a ride to school from one of his parents.

“I swear Ro,” Remy muttered, “When you get out here I am going to kill you.” He yawned, wishing that he had starbucks on him, but that was normally a pit stop made on the way to school.

A car horn sounded and Remy looked up, brows furrowing when he saw a cop car pulling up next to him.

The window to the cruiser rolled down and Remy relaxed slightly upon realizing it was Patton’s dad.

“Hey Mr. Hart, what are you doing here?” Remy asked, standing to see the man better.

“Remy,” Mr Hart greeted, “What are you doing out here? You have school.”

Remy shrugged, looking over his shoulder back at Roman’s house like his boyfriend would magically materialize. “Roman hasn’t come out yet and he’s my ride. Did you take Pat to school?”

Mr. Hart looked confused and answered, “Patton was already gone when we woke up this morning. We figured you boys had headed to school early.”

“No…” Remy looked back again, suddenly worried. If Patton was gone, and Roman hadn’t picked either of them up, then where could Patton be? And where was Roman?

“Why don’t you hop in, I’ll take you to school and give Roman’s parents a call to see if they know what happened.” Mr. Hart offered, motioning to the passenger’s seat. Remy nodded, opening the door and sitting down.

The drive to school was mostly silent, after Mr. Hart called and confirmed with Roman’s parents that they hadn’t seen their son since an argument the other night. Remy thought back to what had happened at school the other day, wondering if he should tell Mr. Hart about it.

No, Remy decided, he wouldn’t. They didn’t even know what had happened, maybe Roman and Patton were just skipping together… no matter how out of character that was for either of them. Besides, that was something Remy didn’t think his boyfriend would appreciate him divulging.

“Thanks for the ride, Mr. Hart.” Remy told the man as he got out of the car as they arrived at the school.

“No problem son, and hey, if you see Patton or Roman give me a call. I don’t like not knowing where either of those two are.” Mr. Hart ordered.

Remy nodded and headed into school.

The day passed uneventfully, though Remy became hyper aware of not only Roman and Patton’s empty seats in their shared classes, but also Virgil’s.

Remy knew his cousin. Virgil may skip occasionally, but he never did so without telling Remy, not after what had happened three years ago. Remy tried to ignore the growing feeling of unease inside of him, but didn’t quite succeed in keeping it at bay.

Something was wrong, he knew it but he had no idea what.


	11. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long break. I've been lacking inspiration to write recently.  
> WARNING: burn wound description & reaction and mentions of a panic attack

Damen silently walked as Logan led them through the halls towards what used to be a science lab but was now Logan’s “game room”. He observed the others as the walked. 

Remus was silent, an occurrence that only happened during the games now a days, neither could really stand silence anymore. Virgil was fidgeting, biting at his nails and tugging at his hoodie. Patton was also fidgeting, though mostly he just wrung his hands nervously. And Roman… well Roman was putting on a brave face, trying to act tough for everyone else but Damen could see that Roman was just as scared and worried as Virgil and Patton.

Damen supposed he could admire Roman for trying to be a pillar for them. 

“ _ We have arrived at the game room,”  _ Logan announced as he stopped. He opened the door. 

Remus trudged in with heavy feet and a blank look. Damen followed and Virgil was the next to enter, head hanging. Roman and Patton exchanged nervous looks before they too entered the room.

“So… what game are we playing today Logan?” Remus asked.

_ “Today we will be playing Fire Dodge. I think the nostalgia will help Virgil get reacquainted here.” _ Logan informed the group.

Damen winced, phantom pain lacing through his face at the mention of this specific game. They hadn’t played it since that incident which he was grateful for. Though it seemed Logan’s hesitance since then had worn off.

Logan went to close the door when Patton piped up, “Wait, aren’t you… playing with us?”

_ “Someone needs to be in charge of the game’s controls.” _ Logan simply replied before closing the door. Damen knew he would be heading to the control lab a floor above them and that the game would be starting in about 5 minutes.

“Logan doesn’t play the games. He played them when the scientists still had control so his program just assumes that not every friend plays or something? It’s hard to know his thought process on these things.” Remus explained.

Roman furrowed his eyebrows but shrugged, accepting his brother’s explanation. “So, what exactly is Fire Dodge?”

Virgil flinched slightly. “It’s um… exactly what it sounds like. You have to dodge fire. There are flame thrower machines in the walls. I swear, this place is like something out of a sci-fi movie.”

Damen huffed in slight amusement, though he knew Virgil was just trying to cope with the situation through as much humor as he could manage.

A mechanical whirring filled the room. And panels in the walls opened as the mentioned flame throwers appeared. 

Remus pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning tiredly against a moment before. “We’ll probably go for half an hour with this game. Logan knows we can’t survive long in intense heat.”

The first flames appeared, and Patton yelped, jumping away from them as they singed the ground next to where he was standing a moment before. Virgil’s inhaled sharply and when Damen looked over he looked like he wasn’t breathing, 

A cry filled the room and everyone’s gaze snapped to Roman who was clutching the back of his right hand gingerly. 

“I’m fine,” Roman told them, “It was just a graze. Nothing too serious I don’t think.”

Damen kept his eyes on Patton, Roman and Virgil, knowing Remus could handle himself fine, while he himself worked on dodging the fire. He had no intentions on a repeat of last time. Again, phantom pain shot through his face and Damen stumbled, heading straight for he path of one of the flame throwers.

Time seemed to slow down as panic engulfed Damen and all he could think was a frantic mantra of,  _ no no no no no no no not again not again not again no no no no no no no no… _

“Dee!” A voice shouted and Damen felt something solid collide with him, pushing him out of the way. Damen skidded across the room from the force, only stopping when he hit the wall. He looked at where he’d been a moment before with wide eyes as a scream emerged,

He wondered if this was how Virgil had felt last time, this immense pit of guilt as he watched someone else in pain when it should have been him.

“Virgil!” Patton shouted.

As soon as the torturous scream had started the flames immediately stopped, the flame throwers retreating to the walls, just as they had last time. Damen was silently thankful that Logan didn’t wish to do any actual serious harm to them, even if it sometimes happened.

Damen picked himself up off the floor and scrambled over to Virgil who lay crumpled on the floor, arms cradled close to his chest. The fabric of his hoodie was burned and charred. Damen did his best to swat out the flames still burning on it without hurting himself.

Patton landed heavily on his knees next to Damen, hands fluttering in the air as he panicked. 

Virgil was breathing heavily, Damen couldn’t identify if it was from pain or a panic attack or a mixture of both. With his own panic engulfing his chest Damen wasn’t quite sure how to handle things, his usual calm, controlled self fading to the background.

Doing the first thing that came to mind, Damen grabbed Virgil’s face, bringing it up so he could look at it, forgetting that if Virgil was having a panic attack - or if what Damen feared most had happened - the sudden movement wouldn’t help.

Damen breathed a momentary sigh of relief when he saw that Virgil’s face hadn’t been burned. But that brought the question of where he had been hurt. Now that his own panic had been quelled some, Damen closed his eyes and took a deep breath to think rationally. 

The answer seemed insanely obvious.

Damen looked down at Virgil’s burned hoodie and arms, still cradled protectively too his chest, but not touching it. Virgil must have brought his arms up to cover his face before the flames could hit it.

“Virgil,” Damen started softly, earning a whimper from the other. “Can I look at your arms?”

Virgil shook his head rapidly in the negatory. Damen hesitated, he still wasn’t sure on what was happening in the boy’s mind, it was most likely just the pain overwhelming him but Damen still had no way of knowing for sure.

Damen looked at Patton, still floundering uselessly next to him, silently asking for help. Patton seemed to understand the silent plea and, finally knowing how he could help, gently encouraged, “Hey, Kiddo, why don’t you try to breath with me. Come on, Kiddo. In for four, hold for seven, out for eight.” As Patton gave the instructions he demonstrated them and Virgil shakily did his best to follow along.

Damen waited patiently while Patton helped Virgil through breathing exercises, trying not to feel jealous over it. Three years ago it would have been him helping Virgil, but that wasn’t fair. Of course someone else would be able to help Virgil now, Patton had probably been helping Virgil through panic attacks for a while, without Damen there to do it.

Damen glanced at the door, wondering 1. Why Logan wasn’t there yet and 2. What Roman and Remus were doing. He got both of his answers when he saw the twins trying their best to keep Logan away from Patton, Virgil and him. It made him nervous, as he knew Logan didn’t like being told what to do, but he also knew it was necessary. Having Logan any closer would not be good for Virgil at the moment.

Damen looked back at Patton and Virgil. Virgil appeared to be breathing more steadily now So he decided to try again.

“Hey, Kitten,” He used the nickname from their childhood which immediately grabbed Virgil’s attention. “Can I take a look at your arms? I promise to be gentle.”

Virgil bit his lip, hesitance visible in his eyes before he nodded, slowly and carefully moving his arms away from his chest so that Damen could look at them.

Damen gently took hold of Virgil’s fingers when he noticed there were no burns there and helped guide the boy’s arms closer to his face. Damen winced at what he saw.

Virgil’s hoodie had probably taken most of the brunt damage, thank God, but the burns still weren’t pretty. The back of Virgil’s forearms were mottled, bright red in most places. Virgil probably needed skin grafts, but Logan didn’t have the medical knowledge required for that, Damen knew.

Damen bit his lip, wondering where to go from there. He didn’t remember what had happened after he’d been burned, the pain had been too intense and he’d passed out from the pain right away. The days after had seemed feverish and not real, like he was looking at the world through water. But Virgil didn’t seem that bad off, probably because he hadn’t been burned in the face.

“Do you think you can move Kitten?” Damen asked softly.

Virgil was quiet for a moment before he slowly nodded. Damen knew that that was Virgil for ‘Probably not, but I’m willing to try.’

He turned to Logan, Remus and Roman. “Logan, I think it would be best if we went back to our room and let Virgil rest.” Remus looked at him with wide eyes and Damen realized he’d spoken with a confidence and sternness he hadn’t had in years. He back tracked quickly, “If you are alright with that.”

Logan was silent and then,  _ “Yes I think that would be wise. _ ”

Damen breathed a silent sigh of relief. He and Patton both wrapped an arm around Virgil’s waist and carefully put his arms around their necks, making sure his outer forearms weren’t making contact with anything where they’d been burned, and hoisted him up.

Virgil slumped heavily against Damen, causing the three to stumble to the right before they adjusted and followed Logan and Roman who was right behind him out of the room, Remus exited after them.

Damen was almost certain that Remus’s gaze was fixed on Virgil’s arms the entire way back to the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm not a medical student (I'm not even in college lol) but I did a bit of research for this chapter. It's probably no where near accurate and I just felt the need to say that.  
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter.


	12. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes it has been forever since I worked on/updated this fic. So sorry, I'll try to get back into this.

Remus stared at Virgil, who lay sleeping in one of the beds. He didn’t know how long it had been since Virgil, Roman and Patton had arrived, but it had been a few days at least. Logan hadn’t made them play anymore games since Virgil got hurt, wanting to give him time to recuperate so he would be able to fully enjoy the games no doubt.

Virgil’s recovery was going faster than Damen’s had, probably because it wasn’t as severe. Remus was glad for that at least. He hadn’t been able to tear his eyes away from Virgil’s blistering burns when the injury had first happened.

Gruesome images flashed before his eyes. It could have been so much worse than it was.

Remus’s eyes slid over to Patton and Roman who stood in the corner, talking in soft voices. He wondered how long it would be until they were marked by the games.

Damen had his burn scar, Virgil would have two now, and Remus had scars running down his back from some of Logan’s other games.

Maybe Roman would fall from the high course and break his spine, losing the ability to walk. Maybe Logan would make them play Fire Dodge again, though that was unlikely, and he’d be burned too. 

Maybe Patton would lose an eye somehow, or - or - or.

Remus needed to stop his thoughts. He began to hum, trying to remember a song from when he was a kid. That usually distracted him.

Roman looked over. “I could teach you some new ones, if you want.” He offered. “Broadway hasn’t stopped just because you’ve been… away.”

Remus offered his brother a tired smirk. “Well it should have.” Jokes were coming easier than they had for two years now. Maybe it was seeing his brother or being around people not as touched by the military base as him, Damen and Virgil.

Roman offered a small smile in return. 

They were still trying to get used to each other after three years apart. They both knew the other had changed since they’d last seen each other, but the sense of familiarity that came from being around the one they’d been basically inseparable with as a child was too great a draw for them to ignore.

“So, what new musicals are there?” Remus asked.

Roman thought for a moment. “I think you’d like Six.”

~~~

Virgil groaned as he woke. His arms still hurt like hell, but it wasn’t as bad as when he’d first been hurt. He stared up at the bleak ceiling for a minute. 

Everytime he woke up, he hoped this all had been a nightmare. But every time he woke up he saw the colorless ceiling instead of the deep purple of his own. Virgil wanted to go home.

He wanted to put up with Remy and his terrible humor and sass and swooning over Roman back when the two hadn’t gotten together yet. Roman had been nicer to him the past few days, maybe because Virgil was hurt, but it was kind of nice not to have Roman mad at him for once.

But he’d rather have that than be here.

“We need to get out.” He hadn’t realized he’d said it outloud until Damen was hovering above him.

“We can’t, Kitten.” Damen murmured softly, eyes sad.

He hadn’t stopped calling Virgil that since he’d been hurt. It was a comfort, a reminder of the time before.

“Yeah,” Remus agreed. “After our first attempt Logan kind of upped his security. Changed the code and everything.”

Virgil nodded. “Yeah, I know.” He doesn’t mention how he panicked and tried to get out when he’d gotten dragged in, but he thinks they’ll be able to guess what had happened.

“Actually, Patton and I have been talking about it.” Roman spoke up, “and we think we may have an idea.”

Damen and Remus exchanged a worried look.

“Guys, we’re telling you it’s not going to work. Logan won’t let us leave the room.” Remus tried to shut them down.

“He will if we have his permission.” Roman replied.

Virgil’s brows furrowed. “And how would we get that?”

“Well…” Patton hesitated. “One of us needs to get hurt. Like, seriously hurt.”

“What?” Damen questioned.

“Promise to hear us out?”

Remus waved a hand in the air, gaze focused on his twin. “Yeah, sure, whatever. Just so we can shoot you guys down. What brilliant plan to get us all killed have you cooked up?”

“So, this is an abandoned military base, right?” Patton asked rhetorically. “Well, you guys said that after everyone was killed the military didn’t come back, they just shut down the base. Which means that there has to be some type of communication unit in here hooked up to the military’s old frequency. Preferably a walkie talkie since we don’t know if Logan is connected to the base’s computers. If we’re lucky, the military will still be using the frequency and we can ask for help.”

“And what does that have to do with one of us getting hurt?” Damen asked.

Roman answered. “In order to get out of the room without getting in trouble with Logan, one of us needs to be hurt seriously enough that he needs something from the med room or whatever, but can’t leave the injured in order to get it. So, he’ll have to send one of us and while we’re gone we can find a communication device.”

“It’s… not a half bad plan,” Remus admitted. “But, it’s too risky. If we get caught.” his eyes glaze over, remembering the past failed escape attempts. They’d only ever been partially successful at one, and after it they had never stood a chance.

“I think we should try.” Virgil spoke up and offered, “I’ll even be the one injured. I already am, we just need to make it… worse right? We can do it right before Logan comes.”

Damen looked at him, gaze worried. “Kitten, you realize that means you’ll have to be near him right?”

Virgil shuddered slightly but his gaze stayed strong. “Yeah. I can do it.” He gave a tired smile. “Besides, a panic attack might just help.”

Damen’s eyes narrowed. He hated that Virgil had been struggling so much, and that now he wanted to use his own suffering as an advantage.

Remus’s dark gaze seemed to agree.

Virgil shrugged. “Look, it’s worth a try.”

Damen and Remus exchanged a quick glance, communicating with each other silently, something they’d had to do a lot over the last three years. 

They both still thought it was a horrible idea and would only end with them all in serious trouble, possibly even killed. But they couldn’t exactly let Virgil, Roman and Patton do it alone. Roman and Patton didn’t know the base at all and it had been three years since Virgil had been there. 

And, if there was even a chance at escape…

Remus sighed, “Fine. But if I end up decapitated or dismembered I am blaming all of you.”

Virgil snorted, not noticing Remus’s surprised look at him finding the statement funny. “Fair enough.”


	13. Chapter Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Remus pretends to have a violent mental breakdown, Virgil has a panic attack and there is descriptions of dead bodies though it isn't graphic. Please do not read if any of this is triggering to you.

“Virgil are you sure about this?” Remus asked for what had to be the thousandth time.

Virgil sighed. “Yes, Remus. I’m sure, and I won’t be mad at you for hurting me or whatever.” He knew that that was what was really making the other so on edge, along with the risk this plan involved.

Virgil wasn’t exactly happy with it either, but he was not going to stay here if there was even one possibility of getting out.

Remus pursed his lips in displeasure but nodded.

Roman looked over from where he leaned casually next to the door. “It doesn’t have to be you Virgil.”

He shook his head. “No, it’ll be better if we only have one injured person when we eventually try to escape. Last time multiple people were injured,” He glances at Remus and Damen guiltily before looking away. “It didn’t go so well.”

Damen’s eyebrows furrowed as he took a step closer to Virgil. “V-”

The sound of Logan approaching cut him off.

“Remus,” Virgil offered his right arm.

Remus reached forward but hesitated.

“Remus there’s no time, do it now!” Virgil ordered.

Remus squeezed his eyes shut, grabbed Virgil’s arm, one hand on the back of his forearm and the other just above his elbow, and pulled with the one on his arm.

Virgil felt the pain from his burns at the simple touch.

The break hurt so much more.

He let out a pained cry, just as Patton and Janus made loud crashing noises, so Logan wouldn’t be suspicious of the complete silence when the break happened.

Virgil grit his teeth against the searing pain and moved off the bed and to the floor as everyone moved positions.

Remus placed himself farther from Virgil, his chest heaving as he panted in an imitation of anger and his fist clenched. Virgil knew it was an act, but he couldn’t help the small tendrel of fear at the crazed glint in Remus’s eyes. He wondered if Remus had enjoyed breaking his arm for a moment, before pushing the thought away.

Damen placed himself behind Remus, wrapping his arms under Remus’s armpits.

Patton moved to the corner and attempted to act scared while Roman pushed himself away from the wall, the perfect expression of shock clear on his face.

They heard Logan’s approach speed up and just before the door flew open, Remus began to fake struggling to escape Damen’s hold.

“ _ What is going on? _ ” Logan demanded.

“He-he- REMUS CALM DOWN!” Damen shouted.

“NO - he fucking - it’s his fault Damen!” Remus screamed in return.

Virgil’s breath caught.  _ They’re acting _ , he reminds himself,  _ They’re just acting. They’re not mad. Remus isn’t really mad. It’s just- they’re- _

_ But it is my fault. _

_ It’s all my fault. _

_ I couldn’t convince Remus not to investigate this place. I couldn’t get us out fast enough. I couldn’t stop Janus from getting hurt. I couldn’t stop Remus from getting hurt. I left them. I didn’t come back. I couldn’t stop Roman or Patton. I couldn’t get  _ **_them_ ** _ out fast enough either. _

_ It’s all my fault _ .

Virgil knows he needs to stop the spiral he needs to stop the panic he feels, because Logan is going to get close to him and that’ll cause enough panic without any already there. But he can’t calm down. He can’t stop thinking about everything he did wrong as Remus spits and screams about how everything that has happened these past three years was Virgil’s fault.

They should have talked about this part. They should have set up boundaries for what could be said and what couldn’t. 

Logan is in front of him.

Virgil wants to scream he wants to cry he wants to run.

HIs breathing is heavy, he needs to calm it down.

He needs… Patton would help.

Damen would help.

His gaze darts around frantically but he can’t spot either of them, all he can see is Logan and the bed at his left and the wall at his right. He’s trapped. He’s trapped he’s trapped _ he’s trapped he’strappedhe’strappedhe’strappedhe’strapped. _

Virgil passes out.

~~~

Patton hesitates when logan tells him to go to the medical room and get a list of supplies. Virgil is panicking, he can see it clear as day. His breath is coming fast and his gaze isn’t focused, but this is the plan.

If Patton doesn’t go then they lose their chance  _ and _ Logan will be mad at him. 

_ “Patton I will not repeat myself. Go to the medbay.” _ Logan spoke again, gaze moving away from Virgil and to Patton.

Patton bit his lip and glanced at Damen, Roman and Remus. 

“Alright, I’ll be back.” He doesn’t know why he adds the last part. To reassure them? Himself? It doesn’t matter.

He darts out of the room, he needs to make this quick.

Remus , Damen and Virgil had done their best to recall the lay out of the building and explain it to him in as much detail as possible. The communications room was supposed to be a hallway down from the medbay, so if Patton moved fast enough he could get to both destinations without Logan getting suspicious.

As soon as Patton is out of hearing distance form the room he breaks into a run, darting down the halls as fast as he can. His eyes skim over room labels until finally he finds the communications room.

The door is firmly closed and Patton hesitates. He’d been warned the sight wouldn’t be pretty. He swallowed, and took the door knob. There was no time for weakness, he was quickly realizing, not here.

The door opened with a slight creak and Patton drew in a breath, looking down the hall he’d come from. He half expected Logan to appear, when nothing happened, Patton breathed out a sigh of relief, then gagged as he registered the acrid scent of blood wafting from the room.

Patton did his best to breath through his mouth as he stepped into the room.

His stare immediately found the bodies.

One was on a chair, neck snapped from the looks of it. Shock frozen on what remained of the person’s gaunt face.

The other was sprawled on the floor, hand outstretched towards the communications panel.  _ He was trying to get help, _ Patton realized morbidly. He swallowed thickly.  _ No time. No room for weakness. _ He reminded himself.

Patton fixed his focus on the communications panel and stepped toward it. His eyes swept over the top, nothing that could be used for communication. He moved his attention to the drawers in the room, tearing them open and slamming them closed as fast as he could analyze the contents.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing!

Patton was beginning to lose hope when he opened another drawer and noticed the black, boxy rectangle with an antenna.

_ Bingo. _

Patton grabbed the walkie talkie and closed the drawer, rushing to get out of the room and not sparing the bodies another glance, even when he stepped on one of their hands and felt the bones snap under his weight, bile rising in his throat.

He made sure to close the door behind him and started for the medbay, tucking the walkie talkie into the back of his pants. It was only his determination to continue and get back to the others so they were one step closer to getting out that kept him going.

If this didn’t work, Patton knew he was going to lose his mind here.

~~~

When Patton got back to the room with the hidden walkie talkie and medical supplies heaped in his arms, the others were huddled on one of the beds, Logan having set Virgil, now unconscious, on another.

Patton made sure to keep his back away from Logan as he set the medical supplies down.

“ _ Thank you, Patton. Join the others.” _ Logan ordered, not looking up.

Patton nodded and slowly backed away, sitting down on the bed. He felt Janus cautiously reach a hand under his shirt and pull out the walkie talkie before darting away to stuff it under the pillow before Logan could notice anything.

One step closer.


	14. Chapter Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remus curses in this chapter so... warning I guess?

Virgil had woken up, but refused to talk to anyone, instead picking at his nails and hoodie remains while his teeth gnawed at his lips. Remus felt his guilt settle under his skin and crawl around like trillions of miniscule bugs.

He reached out a hand, wanting to talk with Virgil. He knew he had gone too far in his little scene, knew that Virgil had probably spent the last three years agonizing over it all.

_ Virgil’s face was filled with panic as he knelt beside Remus, trying to take his weight and lift him. “Remus, come on. We have to go.” _

_ “V-” Remus gagged on his own blood, “V, you need to go. Just get out of here.” _

A hand on his shoulder snapped Remus out of the memory and he startled, whirling to face the person with wide eyes. Damen silently shook his head, and Remus realized he’d frozen, and still outstretched toward Virgil.

He looked at the other, hoping Virgil hadn’t noticed. But luck never was on Remus’s side, and Virgil stared at him, eyes wide and posture stiff.

“Virg-” Remus started only to be cut off.

Patton re-enters the room from where he’d been observing the hall just outside. “Alright, I think we’re in the clear.” He walked over to one of the beds and pulled out the walkie talkie.

They’d been waiting for three hours, just incase Logan came back to check on them after what happened earlier. 

Roman and Damen moved to stand next to Patton. Remus stared at Virgil for a moment longer before sighing and joining them.

“You joining, Kitten?” Damen asked gently, when Virgil didn’t move.

Virgil shook his head minutely. “I’m good,” he mumbled.

“So, who’s talking?” Remus asked, trying to drag attention away from Virgil. It had been three years, but he still knew Virgil, the least he could remember was how the other hated people watching him. (Nevermind he’d been doing just that since the other arrived, it was just so hard to believe he’d actually gotten to see Virgil again after all these years.)

“I… I don’t think I have the energy right now,” Patton admitted and Remus noted for the first time the exhaustion the teen seemed to exude. He wondered how long they’d all been awake, how many days had passed since Logan caught Patton, Roman and Virgil.

“I can do it.” Roman offered. “I… haven’t been much use, and I need to do something before I explode.”

Remus wondered if Logan had any games that would do that.

“Alright,” Damen agreed and Remus shrugged.

Patton handed Roman the walkie talkie and he turned it on. Static played through the room.

Roman lifted it to his mouth before hesitating. Looking up at the others he asked, “What do we do if this doesn’t work?”  
“The same thing me and D have been doing for the last three years. Survive.” It came out callus, but it was the truth.

Roman looked at Remus for a moment longer before nodding and pressing the button on the walkie talkie to start a transmission. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

Static rang around the room, logically they all knew staring at the device would get them nowhere, probably only cause the time to stretch longer but none could tear their gaze away.

Finally,  _ “Who is this? Over.” _

Relief crashed through them all in waves. 

Roman opened communication again. “My name is Roman Prince. I am stuck in an abandoned military base in Oaken Creak, Oregon along with four others. We could use some assistance. Over.”

There was another long pause and Remus felt anxiety creep up. What if they didn’t reply because they weren’t military? What if they just didn’t know about the base or Logan because it had happened so long ago? What if-

_ “This is General Thomas Sanders speaking. Report Mr. Prince. Over.” _

“I… I don’t quite understand what you want me to tell you sir. Me and my friends are trapped in your abandoned military base with some kind of self efficient robot AI that is forcing us to go through ‘games’ where our lives are in danger.” Roman spoke, quickly adding an, “over” when he realized he’d forgotten to.

_ “Copy. We’ll see what we can do kids, no promises. Keep this walkie with you when you can. I’ll try to report back by 0500. Over.” _ Came through after a good ten minutes of silence that had them all filled with nervous energy.

“Alright, thank you General. Over.” Roman finished.

No one responded, and Remus could only hope the general was rushing to see what help he could provide and not dismissing them, putting the base out of sight and out of mine like they’d done in the past.

It was a waiting game.

~~~

None of them, it seemed, were very good at the waiting game.

Virgil, at least, had managed to calm down a bit more with evidence showing they might be on their way to getting out of the base and had allowed Damen to take a seat next to him. Patton hummed a small tune and fiddled with anything he could find in the room, while Roman took to pacing and pausing to look at the walkie. 

Remus simply observed from where he hung upside down on a bed, trying to keep track of how long it had been since their contact with the outside world. He’d gotten to an hour and a half before he messed up and had to start over.

None of them knew what time it was, for all they know 5:00 am had passed and the general never planned to get back to them or was laying dead because of some kind of sudden military crisis. 

_ “Mr. Prince, are you there? Over.”  _ A voice, distinctly female and not the general, crackled through the walkie talkie and Roman lunged for it.

“This is Roman. Over.”

_ “We need more information. How long has the defect had you?” _

“Um, two of us have been here for three years, the other two and I have only been here for… a… a week at most… maybe? We can’t really keep track of time. Over.” Roman stammered through, making his best guess.

_ “And this was never reported?” _ The woman asked, and Virgil flinched in on himself. Remus didn’t like her.

“N-” Roman was cut off as Patton grabbed the walkie from him.

“It was dismissed as nothing, ma’am. One of us here was in here three years ago and managed to escape, but no one believed him.” 

_ “I see. And this is? Over.” _

“Patton Hart, ma’am. My father is the chief of police.” Patton stated like that meant anything to a military official.

_ “Alright, Mr. Hart. Your knowledge has been noted. Over.” _

It was Remus’s turn to snatch the walkie away, growing impatient. “Alright, when can you get us the fuck out of here? Over.”

There was a pause.

_ “We are working on a plan this very minute. Who is this? Over.” _

Remus rolled his eyes. “Remus Prince, been in this shithole for three years and I’m ready to get  _ out _ .” he spat into the walkie, anger rising.

Damen put a hand on his shoulder. “Enough, Remus. Calm down.” He ordered.

Remus scowled, but conceded and handed over the walkie talkie.

“My name is Damen Lügner, I apologize for Remus. The years have not been kind to either of us. If you could give us an outline of how long we will have to remain here I can start making preparations to minimize the amount of injuries we will have that will make the rescue harder. Over.”

_ “Thank you, Mr. Lügner, no apology necessary. As of this moment, we predict a rescue can be made in three days.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not my best chapter, but I hope you enjoyed!


	15. Interlude Ⅱ

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place a day or two before the military's estimated rescue date.

A week.

It had been a week.

Remy was thoroughly panicking at this point.

Virgil didn’t do things like this. He didn’t just disappear for large amounts of time without telling anyone where he was going. Sure, there were some nights he went out, Remy had spotted him walking around town at night through his window, but he never just vanished.

Neither did Roman or Patton. 

Patton had never broken a rule in his life, Remy was pretty sure. He’d never snuck out or skipped school, and listened to his parents’ curfew. 

And Roman knew better, like Virgil. He never risked scaring his parents - always told them where he was going and gave a timeframe of when he’d be back, texting if he was going to be late. He wasn’t irresponsible enough to leave, same as Virgil.

And now they were gone, all three of them were missing. 

Remy had already checked any and all hangout spots he knew at least one of them had been to, and discovered nooks and crannies throughout the town he didn’t think people had been to for years. They weren’t anywhere to be found.

It was just like Freshman year all over again.

Remy paced his room, trying to keep himself from crying for what felt like the millionth time. 

He knew his dad was worried and wanted to talk to him - had already tried to speak with Remy through his bedroom door since Remy had ran out of dinner with his aunt and uncle earlier.

It wasn’t Remy’s fault.

It _ wasn’t. _ He just had to keep reminding himself until he believed it.

Not the dinner.

Not his out of control emotions.

And not… not Virgil being missing. No matter what Virgil’s parents said.

It wasn’t his job to keep Virgil on leash. Yes, he worried. Yes, he checked in on his cousin. But Virgil needed freedom and space, no matter what stifling grip his parents had tried to put down after he’d been found.

Remy had only agreed to be his “handler” because he knew it was the only way Virgil would get any peace or be able to do what he wanted. 

And now Virgil was gone again and his parents were mad at Remy. Maybe he should have kept a better eye on his cousin. Maybe then he wouldn’t be missing. Maybe Roman and Patton wouldn’t be either.

“Ugh,” Remy groaned, stopping in his pacing to drop his head into his hands as he started to cry. “Damn it.” 

He needed some air.

Remy wiped his eyes and grabbed his sunglasses. 

Forgoing his usual leather jacket, Remy slipped into a red hoodie he’d stolen from Roman awhile back and grabbed a beanie Virgil had left last time he was over.

As tempting as it was, he knew better than to leave without a word. 

Grabbing a pen, he quickly wrote out a note for his dad telling him he’d gone out and would be back later, taping it to his door before leaving.

Once Remy was out of the house, he found he had no idea what to do.

Maybe he could go catch a movie.

Remy began the walk to the movies, taking off his glasses and he realized how dark the sky had become despite the still relatively early hour.

He was halfway to the movie theater when a cop car pulled up beside him.

“Remy?” He tensed at the familiar sound of Patton’s father.

Remy plastered on a tight smile, re-placing his sunglasses as he turned to face the car. There was no need for the man to see his bloodshot eyes. “Hey Mr. Hart.”

“Son, what are you doing out?” the man’s voice was stern.

“I’m heading to the movies.” Remy responded casually.

Mr. Hart frowned. “Does your father know where you are?”

Remy hesitated. He had left his dad a note, but there was no way for sure that he’d seen it. Remy didn’t want to say yes only for Mr. Hart to call his dad and find out Picani didn’t know. 

The hesitation lasted too long.

“Get in, I’m taking you home.” Mr. Hart ordered.

“But-” Remy tried to protest but was cut off.

“No buts, you should know better, Remy. What with your cousin, boyfriend, and my son being missing.” Mr. Hart scolded.

Remy flinched and got in the car. “Have you made any progress?” He asked quietly.

Mr. Hart sighed. “You know i can’t tell you that, son.”

He sighed, “right.”

He hated that he couldn’t know. He hated constantly wondering if they’d ever find Virgil, Roman and Patton - or if that day in improv was the last time he would ever see them. 

Mr. Hart dropped him back off with a stern, “Don’t let me catch you out again.”

Remy entered the house feeling worse than he had when he left and returned to his room, ignoring his dad’s curious remark about him being back so soon.

Remy curled up in bed, not bothering to change. He fell asleep with tears dropping onto his pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remy isn't having a good time either - I mean, better than the others, but still not great.


End file.
